p612ITUllf6» 
pH83 



"(^ut of their Own Mouths shall they be Condemned." 



E 670 
.094 
Copy 1 



SOLDIERS MD SAILORS, 

^^~^l ^[/^ ^^-^*^ ^t^^ - ' 



<3 VViH^V 



tl^ 



LOOK TO YOUR INTERESTS. 



GRANT AND COLFAX. 



Comrades, Veterans of the Late 
Union Army and Navy : You ■who for 
four loDg years endured the hardships of 
the battle-field, aud by your bullets saved 
the nation from destruction — it is for you 
to decide whether the war was fought in 
vain, and whether Rebels and Copper- 
heads shall rule, and yourselves be despised 
and insulted. In order that you may un- 
derstand the spirit now actuating the Dem- 
ocratic party, your attention is called to 
the following extracts from speeches of 
"Drmocratic" orators, and editorials of 
their papers. 

The rebel general, Wade Hampton, one 
of the delegates to the convention that 
nominated Seymour and Blair, at a ratifi- 
cation meeting recently held in South Caro- 
lina, said : "J yield to none in devotion to 
that lost cause for which we fought. Never 
shall I admit that the cause itself failed, and 
that the principles which gave it life were 



therefore wrong. Never shall I brand the 
men who upheld it so nobly as rebels or 
traitors.''^ 

Ex-GovERNOR Vance, of North Caro- 
lina, also a delegate to the convention, 
said in the course of his remarks at a ratifi- 
cation meeting in Richmond, Va., a few 
nights after the nomination, '■^ That what 
the confederacy fought for would he won by 
the election of Seymour and Blair. ' ' 

The rebel General Toombs, of Georgia, 
one of the retiring Senators at the outbreak 
of the rebellion, declared, in a speech, made 
at Atlanta, Georgia, ratifying the nomina- 
tions of /Se^mowr and Blair, '■'■That as the 
war was produced by the defeated Democratic 
party in 1860, so they would never have 
peace until it is restored to power in 1868. 
* * * I say by God, that neither des- 
potism, nor tyranny, nor injustice meets 
with peace in this world, or the next. We 
went no peace in chains; peace worthy of 



o^,4- 



freecloni wc want ; and as we have now no 
possibility of fighting icitli tlie sword, lei us 
figlit with the ballot box.'' ^ 

Again we have the letter of General 
Frank P. Blair, Jr., the "■Deynocraiic''' 
candidate for Vice President, in which he de- 
clares for revolution in the following lan- 
guage: "There is but one way to restore the 
Government and Constitution, and that is 
for the President elect to declare these acts null 
and void, compel the army to undo its usur- 
pations at the South, disperse the carpet-bag 
governments, and allow the white people to 
reorganize their own governments and elect 
Senators and Representatives. ' ' The Memphis 
{Tenn.) Avalanche, {rebel,) in alluding to 
Blair's letter says: "7i icas the publication 
of this letter that secured Mr. Blair his nomi- 
nation for the Vice Presidency. Thus it 
loill be seen that the North is far ahead of 
the South. They are rife for revolution.'''' 

The Charlestown {Va.) Chronicle says: 
"General Blair was an Abolitionist and a 
war man, but those are dead issues, and, if 
he was sincere in his recent letter, he loill 
answer our purpose.'''' 

This purpose, as declared by Humphrey 

Marshall, another rebel, in a speech at 

Louisville but a few days since, was to 

'•'■wipe ouV all that has been done in the 

way of reconstruction, and the fourteenth i 

amendment to the Constitution. According j 

to General Tom Ewing, Jr., it is no more | 

nor less than revolution, as will be seen by 

I 
the following extract from his speech de- I 

livered at the Washington ratification I 

meeting: "On the third of November next i 

the American people will endeavor to re- j 

store those States to their constitutional I 

I 
rights. Should this by a possibility ftiil, 

the white population of those States may 

succeed in placing themselves in possession 

of their governments: oihencise, as sure as 

the Anglo-Saxon blood runs in the veins of 

Southern men, there xcill be an upheaval of 

civil war, and then, should Congress sus- i 



tain the blacks, ashes will cover the ruins 
of the whole Eepublic." 

This man Ewing has gone over body 
and soul to the rebel Democracy, and now 
threatens an '■'■upheaval of civil war'''' if by 
any possibility Seymour and Blair should 
/ail to be elected; and, according toothers, 
it will be war if they are elected. See, for 
instance, the speech of the rebel General 
Lawton, delivered at Savannah, Ga., a 
few weeks since, in which he says of the 
Democratic platform, ^'there teas nothing 
that the South wanted that was not there.'''' 
» * * * * 

"For the first time we have a platform 
we can adhere to. We have leaders (Sey- 
mour and Blair) to represent those prin- 
ciples who will carry us out of the 'slough 
of despond.' Peace has its victories as 
well as war; those great principles for which 
we fought and which we feared were lost 
may yet be achieved.''^ 

Read what the Mobile (Alabama) Daily 
Register says: 

"If by any species of chicanery or fraud 
the legitimate voices of a- majority of the 
ichole people of the United States are con- 
temned and the Radical candidates are pro- 
nounced elected by the Radical Congress, 
the Democracy of the country will not 
submit to it, and will take arms to sustain 
the decrees of the ballot-box." - * * 
"Now, if civil war comes out of this con- 
flict of political forces, the white men of 
the South cannot be worsted; for war and 
its terrors in their deadliest form are not 
comparable to the evils they will have to 
endure under a perpetuation of scalawag 
and carpet-bag rule. And here 'loe may as 
well say that the people of the South do not 
intend to submit to that permanent rule, re- 
sult as the Presidential election may.'''' 

At the late Georgia "Democratic" 
Convention one of the delegates addressed 
the convention as follows: 

•^ * * ^'^ We are in the michl of a great 



4 



^ revolution, wJiicJi may end peacefully at the 

'^ ballot-box; but if not, then the trtie men of 

the South will rally once more around their 

now folded banner, and tcill try the issue at 

'"'the cartridge-box.'''' [Loud and enthusiastic 

<i3? applause. ] * * * '■'■There are men in 

the North who are noio trttly with you, and 

who will in such a conflict, if necessary, 

lead your battalions.'''' 

But to come nearer home and see the 
spirit cf the ^'•Northern Democracy,^'' Sena- 
tor Thurman, in his speech before the 
"■Democratic''' Convention of West Vir- 
ginia, speaking of the Radical soldiers, 
when the "i)<?mocra^s"get into power, said: 
" And then I believe these gentlemen, 
(meaning you, soldiers,)who say they -will 
fight rather than submit to the will of the 
people, will be a very amiable set of fel- 
lows, and will want to know on what terms 
we will allow them to surrender. [Cheers.] 
And that will be a matter for you to con- 
sider — whether you will require an uncon- 
ditional surrender or allow them to march 
out with the honors of war. [Cries of 
'■'Unconditional!'''' "Shoot every last one of 
^hem!'''' '■'Let them hang!'''' "Hang them 
&bery one!'^] 

Remember, fellow-soldiers, that these re- 
marks and cries were In reference to your- 
selves — that this man Thurman is a Demo- 
crat, and that the airaience he addressed, 
and who responded in the language just 
quoted, were Democrats. Hemember that 
the extracts here publi shed are all from 
speeches and writings of Democrats. Re- 
member that nearly all these men were in 
the rebel army. Remember that all. or 
nearly all, of them were delegates to the 
convention that nominated Seymour and 
Blair. Remember that Howell Cobb, rebel 



J 



general, who commanded the Andersonville 
stockade, is now advocating the election of 
the ^^ Democratic''^ candidates. Remember 
that General N. B. Forrest, the butcher of 
Fort Pillow, cast the vote of Tennessee in 
the nominating conven'ion for Frank 
Blair, the "Democratic'''' nominee for Vice 
President. Remember that these are the 
men who inaugurated the war; they are 
slill actuated by the same spirit of secession 
and rebellion as in '61, as shown by their 
late speeches. Remember that should 
these men get into power the debt hon- 
estly and justly contracted by the Govern- 
ment to feed and clothe you while in the 
field; to pay your bounties and pensions, 
will be repudiated; that rebel &o\6\qvs, would 
be pensioned and placed upon an equal 
footing with yourselves. 

Comrades, do you doubt for a moment 
your duty in this campaign ? No ! Let 
us resolve that we will never give up the 
fight until the country is reconstructed 
upon the basis of equal and exact justice to 
all men. Let us swear, by the memory of 
our three hundred thousand slain com- 
rades, that we will not prove recreant to 
the cause for which they died, and that 
their widows and orphans shall not be 
left to the tender mercies of the Democratic 
rebel party. Let a million of Boys in 
Blue carry the Stars and Stripes they 
have saved high over the head of our 
brave leader, and place him in the seat, 
where he will be enabled to prove his 
patriotism and his wisdom by maintaining 
the Government he was so largely instru- 
mental in rescuing from the bloody grasp 
of treason and war. Bovs in Blue, close 
up the ranks, and let us march on to 
victory ! 



Published by the Soldiers' and Sailors' National Republican Executive Committee, 
4'46 Fourteenth Street, Washington, D. C. 

State and County Committees supplied upon application to the Secretary of the 
Committee. 



1 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



013 786 551 8 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 786 551 8 




